There was a time when the first question a geek asked the owner of a newly-broken computer was "have you installed any new software recently?" As the post-PC era rolls in - and as the iOS App Store has given consumers confidence that installing software can, under no circumstances, break their computer - that question is changing. But this raises an important new question: why do we "manage" traditional computers in an organization and do those same rationales apply to the new generation of mobile devices that is replacing them? There may be good reasons to manage desktop-class computers tightly, but in an era when mobile devices come with their own managed App Stores, is this still necessary? This talk will explore the idea that the broad changes we're seeing in smartphone platforms and the associated change in attitudes toward exploring their full capabilities should be allowed and even encouraged in schools.

Fraser Speirs is the head of computing and IT at Cedars School of Excellence in Greenock, Scotland. He is responsible for the teaching of computing and ICT across the school and is also responsible for IT provision, policy and strategy. In August 2010 at Cedars, Speirs successfully led the world's first one-to-one deployment of iPads in a whole-school setting. Speirs holds a B.Sc. in Software Engineering and a master's in computer science from the University of Glasgow.